“But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.” Amos 5:24.

It is impossible for the human mind to encompass the plan of God. However, there is at least a satisfactory explanation of the necessity of the cross and the sacrifice of Christ.

It all lies in the infinitude of God Himself. In other words, God is infinite, and this puts the satisfaction of the debt we owe to God for our sins infinitely beyond our reach.

How do you pay an infinite price for your redemption? The answer is you cannot. God, in His mercy, provided a way to settle the sin problem, once and for all, before anything was created.

Improbable as this sounds it is true. Never forget, God knows the beginning from the end, regardless how long a period of time this happens to be, not only this but He knows all that is going to transpire within that period, which in this case happens to be eternity.

The omniscient God knew that as soon as mankind came into being he would rebel and reject God.

With this knowledge, it would be pointless to create people that would just be cast into hell after a lifetime of futile existence. In spite of what you see around you, God does not create amiss, He has a purpose and a goal.

Any one of us would have a plan when undertaking a project whether it be building a coffee table or a corporation; people do not create with the intention of throwing something into the trash. Though we do make mistakes, God does not.

Here is an example that may help put this subject into focus. Let us say, it is Mother’s Day and a father and daughter say to mother, “Since it is Mother’s day why don’t you relax today we will do all the chores, don’t
worry about anything”.

Well the mother delights in this gift to her and she takes a nice hot bath puts on her nightgown, and brews a cup of tea. She then settles down in her big comfortable bed with a book.

She reads on totally relaxed and enjoying the moment, when she hears her daughter’s voice, “Mommy can I get into bed with you?” Without looking up, momma says, “Of course dear.” As she speaks, she looks up and gasps, “What happened to you?”

The little girl replies, “I was slopping the hogs and fell into the mud in the pen. Mommy can I get in bed with you?”

The mother replies, “Of course you can dear, but first go and bathe.”

“No mommy I want to get in bed with you now.” The little girl insists as she draws closer to the bed.

“Well,” mother says, “Let me take you in and give you a bath first, and then we can get into bed together.”

However, the little girl is insistent, “Mommy I want to get into bed with you now.”

The point is this, if the mother let’s her little girl get into bed with her covered in mud and hog filth there is no way she can be comfortable.

Yet there is no question that the girl’s mother loves her deeply, this will not change.

God’s love is far deeper than a mother’s love and yet heaven would cease to be heaven if He was to let sinful men into it, rebellion, hate, deceit and warfare would then be moved from the arena of earth to heaven.

It is easy to see the depth of the dilemma now, but how to resolve it? Bearing in mind that sin is something that we brought upon ourselves, we made a choice to go our own way in rebellion against God.

Do not look at Adam and Eve; they simply made the same choice that we would have eventually. Whether we would have sinned sooner or later than them is moot, it remains that we would have sinned.

Nor does it matter whether it was over a piece of fruit or not, our parents were just the first to do so. People like to blame them, many people blame Eve as though it all would not have happened if it had not been for her.

The question is not what our parents did, but what have we done?

We need to take responsibility for our actions and realize that just as God’s love is infinite so His hatred of sin is infinite.

Perhaps we could make up for our sins by doing good deeds, and bearing in mind that we are constantly sinning while doing these good deeds. How would this work?

Let us say that we are building a stairway to heaven, one good deed per step. How many steps would this take, considering that it is 93 million miles to the sun, the nearest star, and many stars are trillions of miles away?

Trillions upon trillions of steps would be necessary, there would not be enough time in a lifetime to make it even a fraction of the distance, and then, just before you die you do something horrible in a fit of anger.

A lifetime of good intentions destroyed in a moment, God is not that cruel.

Therefore, you can see here that God is smarter than we are. He knew that if it were left up to us to maintain our salvation we would fail within a very short period of time; this is why our salvation is an infinite one.

Pay close attention to each word in John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Read the last three words, “have everlasting life”, present tense, right now everlasting life. Not pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye, but right now, those in Christ are alive forever. The wording of this verse also indicates that this life is irrevocable.

A person may go to hell because they assumed that they were somehow going to heaven because they were a good person or churchgoer or some such other rationalization.

A person with a true faith in Christ will change throughout their lifetime because the Holy Spirit dwells within them. In other words their faith in Christ will produce outward change in their lives and actions.

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? [The answer is it is not true faith]” James 2:14.

“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:17-18.

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26.

The true Christian will change, slowly perhaps, but they will change. True Christians will turn from the works of the flesh described in Galatians 5:19-21 and begin to show the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23.

There are many people who believe in Christ. The Bible says this of them.

“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble!” James 2:19.

You may believe in Abraham Lincoln or George Washington this is good, I believe in the Empire State building. And I know if I go there and ride to the top I will be closer to heaven but it will never get me any closer than that.

Neither will simple knowledge of something get you any closer; those who having believed in Christ as their savior; who have put their trust in Him as the payment for their sin; have eternal life that cannot be lost or taken away.

Oh yes, many true Christians have made a terrible mess of their lives, but they will not lose eternity in heaven. The blood of Christ is infinite in its power and value. This is something only God could do, and to do so He had to become as one of us.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” Hebrews 2:9.

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…” Hebrews 2:14.

“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews 10:11-12.

“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14.

Since our sin is an infinite one it was necessary to find a way to remedy the problem, paying for it is out of the question since we are completely bankrupt. Paul says of himself, and us.

“…I am carnal, sold under sin.” Romans 7: 14b.

Because of this, several steps are necessary to redeem us; one, it must be by a blood relative; two, he must be able to pay the price, and three; he must be willing to redeem that which has been forfeited.

Look again at Hebrews 2:9 and 14, quoted above and you will see a little more clearly how Jesus has met the requirements of step one.

Some other lovely verses testify to the incarnation as follows.

“And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

“For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life…“ 1 John 1:1.

“And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” 1 John 3:5.

Since, as we have seen, God is the only one capable of paying an infinite price, and since Jesus Christ was shown, in power to be the living God who created the cosmos, came as a Man, a blood relative to all mankind, He can certainly meet the second requirement.

As to the third step, a quick look back at the beginning of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” for love of us God gave His Son.

For love of us Jesus gave Himself.

“…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” John 13:1b.

“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.” John 10:17.

If you like love stories, the Old Testament book of Ruth is a beautiful type of this whole redemption process.

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” John 1:29.

The notable thing about verse 29 here is that it does not give a limitation to the amount of sin covered by the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus paid for all sin that is why He can say this.

“…the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” John 6:37b.

This is a staggering thought, not only is sin infinite in its consequences, but the blood of Christ is infinite in its payment for all sin.

The number of sins committed by mankind must be a crushingly huge number, though because mankind is finite that number is finite, yet that makes God’s power to save all the more astonishing.

This burden was borne by one Man, the Man Christ Jesus. And He bore these sins with each individual person and each individual sin in mind.
God will seek and have justice on every minute detail, nothing left out, everything uncovered!

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation [full payment] by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26.

Do not be confused by what it says in verse twenty-five, “…because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed…” that does not mean that there will be no retribution for sin, it means that He chose not to destroy sinners immediately in His wrath.

God’s grace holds that wrath in abeyance; He knew that many people would accept Christ’s payment for sin as their own, so why rip up the wheat along with the tares (Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43).

History does, and will bear out the fact that men throughout time have reaped the consequences of their sins through wars, famines, plagues, and anarchy. In time, all these things will become clear, and the justice of God will triumph on Judgment Day.

Having said that, look again at Romans 3:26, last phrase, “…that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus”; this is the grace of God.

He tells us that He cannot have sin in His presence, only the just shall enter heaven. Then He carries the whole burden of sin so we can spend eternity with Him. Justified in Jesus, it just does not get any better than that!

Justice, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 7-11-15, updated on 3-11-19.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.